MARCH 26, 2018

Oryx and Crake

Chapters 1-3
 MARGARET ATWOOD

• Born in Canada, 1939

• Bachelor’s degree in English, French,
and Philosophy from University of
Toronto
• Graduate work at Harvard University
• First novel 1969, The Edible Woman
• The Handmaid’s Tale, 1985
MADDADDAM TRILOGY

• Oryx and Crake, 2003

• Reaction to contemporary culture:
• Decline of humanities/rise of STEM
• Corporate influence over public policy
• Scientific research combined with
consumer culture
• Imagining where current trends might lead
us.
"Like The Handmaid's Tale, Oryx and Crake is a speculative fiction, not a science fiction
proper. It contains no intergalactic space travel, no teleportation, no Martians. As with
The Handmaid's Tale, it invents nothing we haven't already invented or started to
invent. Every novel begins with a what if, and then sets forth its axioms. The what if of
Oryx and Crake is simply, What if we continue down the road we're already on? How
slippery is the slope? What are our saving graces? Who's got the will to stop us?
Writers write about what worries them, and the world of Oryx and Crake is what
worries me now. It’s not a questions of our inventions – all human inventions are
merely tools – but of what might be done with them; for no matter how high the tech,
Homo sapiens remains at heart what he’s been for tens of thousands of years – the
same emotions, the same preoccupations."

-- Margaret Atwood, “Writing Oryx and Crake,” Writing with Intent, 2005
 T H E F O L L OW I N G " H E A D L I N E S " A R E R E L AT E D TO VA R I O U S WO R K S O F F I C T I O N W R I T T E N OV E R T H E
L A S T S E V E R A L D E C A D E S . D E C I D E W H I C H O N E S YO U B E L I E V E A R E FAC T A N D W H I C H S T I L L R E M A I N
IN THE REALM OF THE FICTION WRITERS' MINDS...

1. Military Plans Cyborg Sharks

2. U.S. Air Force Takes a Look at Teleportation
ALL OF THESE
3. First 'Telecloning' Experiment Works ... Sort Of
ARE FACTUAL
4. Asimov's First Law: Japan Sets Rules for Robots HEADLINES!!!
5. Cybugs: Military Mulls Army of Cyborg Insects
6. Common honey bees can be trained to recognize individual people
7. Proposal to Implant Tracking Chips in Immigrants
8. Android Has Human-Like Skin and Expressions
9. Real Doc Ock: New Robot Has Robotic Tentacles
 SOME EXCERPTS FROM
SCIENCE FICTION
MILITARY PLANS CYBORG SHARKS
In his 1981 short story “Johnny Mnemonic,”
William Gibson wrote about Jones, a military
surplus dolphin cyborg that has equipment that
is surprisingly similar to the DARPA sharks:
“He rose out of the water, showing us the crusted
plates along his sides, a kind of visual pun, his grace
nearly lost under armor, clumsy and prehistoric.
Twin deformities on either side of his skull had been
engineered to house sensor units. Silver lesions
gleamed on exposed sections of his gray-white
hide.”
ASIMOV’S FIRST LAW: JAPAN SETS
RULES FOR ROBOTS
The first law of robotics, as set forth in 1940
by writer Isaac Asimov, states, “A robot may
not injure a human being, or, through inaction,
allow a human being to come to harm.”
COMMON HONEY BEES CAN BE
TRAINED TO RECOGNIZE
INDIVIDUAL PEOPLE
In his chilling novel The Green Brain, Frank
Herbert writes about insects evolving to the
point where particular insects or hives of
insects can indeed recognize individual human
beings.
 PROPOSAL TO IMPLANT TRACKING
CHIPS IN IMMIGRANTS
Implanting microchips in human beings for the
purpose of monitoring is not exactly news for
science fiction fans; Alfred Bester wrote about
"skull bugs" in his 1974 novel The Computer
Connection:
"...you don't know what's going on
in the crazy culture outside. It's a
bugged and drugged world. Ninety
percent of the bods have bugs
implanted in their skulls in hospital
when they're born. They’re
monitored constantly."
REAL DOC OCK: NEW ROBOT
HAS ROBOTIC TENTACLES
In his classic 1898 story, War of the Worlds,
H.G. Wells referred to the "glittering
tentacles" that enabled the Martian Tripods to
both walk and grasp objects:
“Seen nearer, the Thing was
incredibly strange, for it was no
mere insensate machine driving on
its way. Machine it was, with a
ringing metallic pace, and long,
flexible, glittering tentacles (one of
which gripped a young pine tree)
swinging and rattling about its
strange body.”
"Science and fiction both begin with similar questions: What if? Why? How does it all work? But they focus on
different areas of life on earth. The experiments of science should be replicable, and those of literature should
not be (why write the same book twice)?

Please don't make the mistake of thinking that Oryx and Crake is anti-science. Science is a way of knowing, and a
tool. Like all ways of knowing and tools, it can be turned to bad uses. And it can be bought and sold, and it often
is. But it is not in itself bad. Like electricity, it's neutral."

--Margaret Atwood, Random House interview

 GENETIC
ENGINEERING

• Also called genetic

modification and gene splicing

• Involves the isolation and

manipulation of DNA cells on
certain organisms
 GENETIC ENGINEERING TIMELINE

1952-Robert Briggs and Thomas King clone the first animal a Northern Leopard Frog
1973-First successful genetic engineering experiment-a gene from an African clawed toad is inserted into
bacterial DNA.
1976-Genentech, the world’s first genetic engineering company is founded.
1982-The US FDA approves the first genetically engineered drug, a from of insulin produced by bacteria.
1986-The FDA approves the first genetically engineered vaccine produced by bacteria.
1987-The US Patent and Trademark Office announces that non-human animals can be patented.
1987-Researchers announced the production of genetically engineered mice that produce a human heart
attack drug in their milk.
1988-The first patent issued for a mammal goes to the “Harvard Dupont Oncomouse” a genetically
engineered mouse highly susceptible to breast cancer.
1988-Researcher at U.S. Department of Agriculture inserts human growth hormone into a pig’s gene,
resulting in a hairy, lethargic animal.
1990 -The FDA approves the first genetically engineered food, chymosin. Chymosin is used to make more than half the
cheese in the United States.
1993 -The FDA approves genetically engineered Bovine Growth Hormone (BGH) a drug designed to increase milk
production in cows. The FDA does not require that the milk from BHG injected cows to be labeled.
1994 -The FDA approves the genetically engineered “Flavr Savr” tomato.
1997 -Scientists in Scotland clone the sheep Dolly from the udder cell of an adult ewe whose tissues had been frozen
three years earlier.
1998 -40 million hectares of GM crops are planted globally, predominately soy, cotton, canola, and corn.
1998 -Scientists at the University of Hawaii announce the birth of Cumulina and six other generations of cloned mice --
the first reproducible clones.
2000 -The Scottish scientists who cloned Dolly announce the birth of two more cloned sleep -- Cupid and Diana. Large
animals such as sheep, pigs and cows can also now be genetically engineered to replace mice in the study of human
diseases.
2000 -Scientists announce the birth of the first successfully cloned pigs with the hope that the feat will accelerate efforts
to develop genetically modified pigs with "people-friendly" organs for transplantation.
2001 -A rare ox called a gaur named Noah is born to Bessie, a domestic cow, in Sioux Falls, IA -- the first endangered
species cloned by implanting cells into a cow's egg. Noah died two days later of a bacterial infection. Five other cows
pregnant with cloned gaurs spontaneously aborted their fetuses.
2002-Scientists at Texas A&M University clone a house cat they named "cc" for carbon copy.
2003-Dolly the sheep dies at age 6 of a common incurable lung disease. Dolly suffered at an early age from arthritis.
 EPIGRAPH :
A SHORT QUOTATION OR SAYING AT THE BEGINNING OF A
BOOK OR CHAPTER, INTENDED TO SUGGEST ITS THEME

I could perhaps like others have astonished you with strange improbable tales; but I rather chose to
relate plain matter of fact in the simplest manner and style; because my principle design was to
inform you, and not to amuse you.
Jonathan Swift Gulliver's Travels

Was there no safety? No learning by heart of the ways of the world? No guide, no shelter, but all
was miracle and leaping from the pinnacle of a tower into the air?
Virginia Woolf To the Lighthouse
 SOME MAJOR THEMES IN THIS BOOK

• Scientific progress and its cost

• Corporate power and commodification
• Human and animal binary
• State of human relationships
• History, language, and the humanities
• Extinction and evolution
 • Class will not meet on March 28 or 30
• There are readings assigned for each day:
• Wed: Ch 4-5
• Fri: Ch 6-7
• Mon: Ch8-10
HOMEWORK AND
REMINDERS • For Monday, April 2:
• Please create 3 discussion questions – one that
addresses each day’s reading.
• Please be sure to use a specific example or
passage from the day’s reading to frame your
question.
• Type these up to hand in at the start of class.